Ackman Predicts Private Equity Pain for $53 Billion Harvard Fund

Bill Ackman said Harvard University’s endowment is heading for a painful financial reckoning as it weighs selling some of its private equity holdings while battling the Trump administration over federal research funding.

A sale of private equity assets will only come at a “meaningful discount” to their valuation in Harvard’s $53 billion endowment, Ackman said Tuesday at the Milken Institute Global Conference. Other private equity investments should be marked down accordingly, he said.

“The reality of Harvard is it’s in a financial crisis right now. It may not yet know it. But it is,” said Ackman, the billionaire founder ...